love – Page 9 – Salvaged Faith

it causes me to tremble…

Posted on June 6, 2010Leave a comment

Day two of our annual conference has completed. We have voted on exactly 7 items of legislation. And we have celebrated and praised and prayed and remembered and sung and danced and ate and hugged and sat and walked and listened.

Some brief highlights for me so far:

“Hi, I’m Fred.” Our “priest” for the conference introduced himself and welcomed us into a spirit of worshipful work and I truly have felt this particular time of conference has felt different because of it.
advocating for young adults at our legislative section and dreaming up possibilities for community college ministries
Rev. Doug Ruffle’s challenges to be a sign, a foretaste, and an instrument of the Kingdom of God…
crazy fast and delicious dinner at A Dong
even though clergy session was inhumanely long – it had a wonderful spirit to it as we gathered to worship (thanks clergy band!) and celebrate the ministry we share… and have good conversation about itinerancy
ordination!!!!!! being surrounded by family and church members and friends, the weight of all of those hands upon me, the feeling of the bible underneath my fingers, singing with joy
the reminders throughout the day of the gift of the scriptures: Bishop Kulah talking about Jesus expounding the scriptures; Barbara Lundblad’s take on radical love enfleshed in John’s gospel (love that bends down, that reaches beyond, that puts people before rules, that is here in this moment, that renews itself as soon as you think it has ended); Bishop Job sharing what a day, a year, a decade’s worth of living in the word can do for our lives; a friend’s amazing rendition of a song from the musical Philemon during prayer;
the Rethink Rock video
the voices of young adults who stood to speak out of love for what they care about on the floor.
sharing deeply with one another truths about things that have hurt us… so that we might give them over to God.
our conference artist’s work… and the poetic description of what God is sharing with us through it. The idea of being baptised into the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ being symbolized by a font filled with shards of glass… of chairs of hospitality inviting us to take our seat… the challenge that being radically hospitible brings… of the chair on the cross being an invocation – asking for God to enter our lives.

levels and dimensions

Posted on April 5, 20101 Comment

Last month at our county ministerial alliance gathering, we got to chatting about the books we were reading. One pastor mentioned a book – and of course the title escapes me – but it had something to do with how we invite people into deeper discipleship. I actually think that it was “Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples” but I’m not 100% positive.

Our conversation from this point talked about the process for making these deep disciples. We talked about Saddleback Church’s Baseball Diamond metaphor… which probably comes from somewhere else first. We talked about the process at one local pastor’s church of moving from an attender to a participator to a server… well, that’s not exactly how he phrased it, but it’s moving from simply being there to going deeper in your involvement and then giving back in some way.

It was all about process and movement and how to move people, how to encourage people to not just stay at one level in their spiritual growth, but to… grow!

I left the conversation thinking about the fact our congregation hasn’t had a discussion about our discipleship process. People come to church and we try to get them to join and then… well, pray they get active. It’s kind of sad to type that out, but it’s probably the truth.

I left the meeting and picked back up the book that I had been reading, “This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God” by Rick McKinley. And the very chapter I was beginning had this to say:

When I first became a Christ follower, I was invited to a Bible study… Bring it on, I thought. I was all for it. I devoured that one and soon moved on to the next, and then the next one after that, and the next one after that… But there was no end to it. All I ever arrived at was a new level that needed reaching. Now you might recognize yourself in my spiritual striving, or you might not. But I see that kind of striving and competitiveness everywhere… churches especially. Pastors and lay leaders love to talk about advancing the kingdom, about building the kingdom. It is as if Jesus said, “My kingdom is a pile of lumber on the truck in heave, and I need you boys and girls to get a hammer and help Me nail this thing together. Could ya?”

But he didn’t… He said, “The Kingdom is…”

… What if I told you that the the world is broken and that WE are God’s answer to the world’s problems?… You yourself – and all that you can do – are crucial to the future of the planet. Just like you secretly, humbly, all along expected.

Of course, it’s not true. The kingdom is. That’s it. Jesus does not need you or me to nail it together.

Kind of throws me off. I like thinking in terms of levels of achievement… if I work hard and do the right things, I can move to the next level… Levels of spirituality are perfect for a culture that deifies the individual. Our world is focused on self; the kingdom is about the other. It demands that I notice others, love others, pray for them and serve them. “Levels spirituality” does not. It allows me to do it myself, by myself.

Jesus hates levels spirutuality. All it does is reinforce the lie that started way back in the beginning – the one that says I can be like God. (pgs 56-58)

So, I spent the morning talking about and embracing this idea of levels and growth through a process and then Rick McKinley turns the whole thing upside down and on its head and says – no.

Of course, it’s not necessarily an either/or. It’s a both/and. We are called both to just be in Christ’s kingdom and we are called to take up our cross and follow.

In spite of my Wesleyan roots, I think I tend to really hold fast to the being of discipleship. Wesley had a fanatical desire to grow in his spirituality and had all sorts of “methods” for doing so. Fasting, prayer, visiting the prisoners were all steps in the process of becoming more like Christ. There was the whole idea of sanctification… that we actually COULD by God’s grace become more and more like Christ.

But what I think that in spite of all the doing of discipleship, the early Wesleyans were also putting themselves in situations and among people where they could BE in the Kingdom. They was seeking out the poor – or they were the poor, the sick, the imprisoned. They sat with the people Jesus loved. They loved them. They did what they could for them, but the relationships were important. When they asked, “how is it with your soul?” they meant it.

Again from Rick McKinley:

…God isn’t measuring anything. He only wants us to live in a dimension that is already there. He is simply inviting us to be a part of what He is already doing… What I am realizing after a few years of leaving the levels is that our eyes begin to see differently. We notice the kingdom dimension of life, but slowly… seeing the kingdom may take a few seconds.

My hope as a pastor is not that I get someone to achieve higher levels of discipleship, but that I can love them. My hope is that I can love them and offer them the opportunity to see the world with new eyes. To see the world as Christ sees it. To see the broken and hurting things and to love them. Yes, there is a goal to be reached – a time when that hurting and suffering and pain is no more… but that is not for me to determine. I can simply be in the kingdom and let Christ’s love flow through me.

“this beautiful mess” part 1

Posted on February 23, 2010Leave a comment

I have been trying to read more. There are far too many books on my shelf – delicious books – just waiting to be picked up and devoured. So I decided to start with Rick McKinley’s “This Beautiful Mess.”

The writing style just draws me in… it’s conversational and pulls me in. But even more than that, he speaks to the core of my longing for the Kingdom of God. As he starts out the book, he describes it as a “permission slip… get out of religion free.” He invites us to recieve the book “not as the last theological work on anything, but as a well-intentioned, God-loving invitation to go and grow and be where you haven’t before.”

And then, McKinley takes those pithy sayings that drive me nuts and transforms them into solid truth in a way that I wish I could do. For example:

…when our lives are all about us, the appeal of that kind of bumper-sticker dumbness is irresistible. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” gets turned into a tool of the self to assure my business success instead of a promise that brings peace to my soul when all hell breaks loose.

Peace to my soul when all hell breaks loose. That’s what I’m craving. Yeah, it would be nice for the hell not to break loose at all. But it does and it will and Christ never promises that we won’t have trouble. Maybe that’s what I was getting at a few weeks ago when I blogged about my car accident. I never expected that an accident wouldn’t happen. I never expected to be so protected by the hand of God that no trouble would ever befall me. I do expect that Christ will be with me through even the darkest valleys, however.

I have now been in ministry to the congregation I serve for two full years now. Maybe it’s because I’m young, or don’t yet have the self-confidence in my own vocation, but it’s taken me this long to be able to challenge some of those simplistic and pithy characterizations of God. I find the confidence to do it in sermons – mostly because the Holy Spirit is at my back… or rather, I pray over my texts that she will be. I just don’t go into other conversations in the same way… and I should! Perhaps with more prayer and with more confidence in the God who gives me the voice to speak, I can continue to affirm the faith of my people while at the same time giving them a “get out of religion free” card. I can give them an invitation to think deeper and to go where they haven’t been before, to move beyond Jesus and me in heaven by and by to Jesus and me and the poor with my sleeves rolled up here and now.

It’s not an either/or. I’m foolish to paint it that way. It’s a both/and. Breathing IN and Breathing OUT. Letting Christ be King… but King of his own Kingdom and not the ones we create for him. Changing our allegiances. Challenging the politics of it all. And doing all of that with grace and humility.

Four Loves

Posted on February 13, 20102 Comments

** Note: This is a sermon done in pieces throughout the worship service, interspersed with scripture and songs. Also – many thanks to UCC Worship Ways for help with the liturgy that ties all these pieces together (parts are found in the Eros II section) **

A few years ago, I was in Nashville and most of my ministry was to young adults in the congregation. Valentine’s Day was approaching, and I was surprised by the ways in which people without “significant others” felt like they were being left out of the festivities. Left out of the celebration of love. They were depressed and heart broken and lonely. So as we got together to talk with one another about all the mushy, gushy stuff that surrounds this month, we tried hard to remember that love is not an emotion or an action reserved only for two people who “love” each other. It is more than that. It is deeper than that. Love is essential to who we are as human beings. We are creatures who both need to give and receive love. All of us need that.

C.S. Lewis is a great Christian theologian and he wrote a book about love. About four loves actually. The poverty of the English language is that we only have one word to describe this whole range of experiences. And so when this word is co-opted by a holiday or defined in a particular way, we leave out all of the other expressions of this complex and varied thing called love. But C.S. Lewis looked back at the different Greek words that all get subsumed under our conception of love today – and realized that love is a many splendored thing.

PHILIA

As much as our culture talks about individualism and self-identity, the truth is that we would not survive very long in this world without the people around us and the relationships that we have. David would have been absolutely lost in Saul’s court, if it were not for the bond that he had with Jonathan. And love, of one form or another is a part of all of these bonds. It is the glue that cements us together. Perhaps the most common and varied way in which we experience love is through the Greek word, philia, or companionship. This kind of love is always about something, some common interest or activity that draws individuals together for a common purpose.

Just think back to high school. All of the groups and cliques that formed were a result of philia, some kind of shared love. There were the jocks and the band geeks, the popular crowd and the nerds. These relationships, whether we liked it or not, were to some extent exclusive. The jocks just didn’t hang out with the nerds – unless of course you went to a small school like myself, and the jocks were the band geeks, who were the popular kids and they dated the nerds. Anyways. The very nature of philia is that it is exclusive. When you are drawn together for a common purpose, it means that others who don’t share in your love will not be a part of the group. And for the most part, that’s okay because we have multiple circles of friends: our golf buddies, and the people we play cards with; our co-workers.

I do want to say however, that Philia love is deeper than mere camaraderie. When you and others share philia love, you are passionate about the things you do together. You can’t wait for your next opportunity to be with one another.

This is how we think if David and Jonathan. In romantic love, two people stand face-to-face – eyes on one another. But in philia love… those two people… or more… are standing shoulder-to-shoulder, facing their common interests. Both David and Johnathan cared for one another, but their common passion was for Israel even more. Jonathan was willing to give up his claim to the throne, because he knew that David would make a better leader. And as the king, Saul, becomes more and more disturbed and seeks to end David’s life – it is the relationship between Jonathan and David that ends up saving David from death. (Photo by: Mateusz Stachowski)

When we find others who truly care about the same things we do, we find our place. I think that this is truly what it means to be the church. We are drawn into community because we have found others who are in relationship with Christ and because we share a common understanding of what that means. We are connected to something larger than ourselves and find others to travel that journey with us. There is a downside to this Philia love, however. It can become very exclusive. It can shut others out. And when the church only has this kind of love in mind, it is no better than a high school clique. We need to be continually transformed by God’s love, so that our love for one another and Christ will draw us outward and will open the doors of the church.

STORGE

The next type of love is storge, or the affectionate love that we find within families. It is the completely natural warmth we feel towards those people who have also become like family to us – it is a love that cannot be coerced or bought but it is simply present through time. When thinking about storge, I often think about how I felt towards my brothers growing up. My mom would often tell me, “You don’t have to like your brothers, but you do have to love them.” With this type of love, who the person is or what they believe or how they act doesn’t matter. It is our relationship to them and the fact that we are in this together for the long haul that forms our bonds of love.

As I have watched my nephew Aden grow over the last three months, I have witnessed this kind of love. It is the bond between a mother and her child as they nurse. It is the bond between a father and his child as they play. It is made through eye contact, and soft gentle touches, and a warm arm to cuddle into. We enter this world fragile and vulnerable and we need the love of our families to grow and develop. In fact, children who do not receive this kind of love can fall behind in development and have a “failure to thrive.”

This kind of love is about giving and receiving. When families break apart, or when we do not receive love from the people who are supposed to care for us in this way, there is great pain involved. Parents, as hard as they try not to sometimes have favorites and the story of Jacob and Esau shows how it can tear a family apart. But the good news is that we become part of new families throughout our lifetimes; co-workers come to feel like brothers; that wise couple next door, like grandparents. When we open ourselves to others, when we are vulnerable and listen for the vulnerability of others, we can experience this kind of love.

EROS

Eros is about the beloved. It is being in love with the beloved. And it is something we don’t like to talk about in church. When we think of eros love, our minds immediately jump to a sort of passionate sexuality that the church defines, constrains, and then ignores. But physical sexuality is not the sum and total of this kind of love. It is a part, but not the whole.

To love someone with this kind of love is to love them, not because of what we might receive from the relationship, but simply because of who they are, simply because they are the beloved. It is about intimacy with another that is fostered through all sorts of mundane tasks: taking walks, sharing meals, conversing with one another. As Kathleen Norris writes in her book, The Cloister Walk, some of the most sexual people that she knows are celibate monks. She says, “When you can’t make love physically, you figure out other ways to do it.”

This kind of love is a sort of glimpse into divine love. I’ll admit, that I do watch South Park on occasion, and one of my favorite episodes is when Cartman starts a Christian rock band. I thought about showing you a clip of this episode, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find one without horrendous language, so I’ll just have to describe it for you. The kids take popular romantic love songs and simply insert Jesus into the lyrics.

While that may seem sacrilegious… the language of Eros love has often used by mystics to describe their relationship to the divine – as they come to see God as the beloved. Just hear these words from the diary of Beatrice of Nazareth, a thirteenth century mystic: “…the holy woman’s affection was so tender that she was often soaked with the flood of tears from her melted heart, and sometimes because of the excessive abundance of spiritual delight, feels a great closeness to God, a substantial clarity, a wonderful delight, a noble liberty and a ravishing sweetness…”

As we think about God as our beloved… we suddenly remember all sorts of hymns and songs that are in essence, love songs to our Lord… let us join together and sing one of them now… Oh How I love Jesus…

Eros Part II

As we think about the transfiguration of Christ, we often place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples. And we are filled with wonder and awe and love towards this glorious thing taking place right before our very eyes! But the problem is that we can become overwhelmed by the passion that we experience there. You see, even in the presence of God, Eros love, by itself, is never enough. A blind devotion to the object of our affection can be dangerous, be it to our partner or our conception of the divine. And it is because Eros love always begins with ourselves. While it may be directed towards whatever we come to see as the beloved, its source is within us and as such, is far from selfless.

When we fill our lives with Eros love, we become consumed by our passion for the beloved. Peter wanted to stay there in that moment forever. But Christ wants our love to not only be for God, but for others as well. Christ wanted them to leave that mountaintop. He wants to move them to a deeper sort of love.

We often find ourselves searching for these dramatic and holy experiences of God. We want to go up the mountain with Peter, James and John and experience God’s glory. And when we get there, if we have the ability to experience it, we want to say, “it’s good for us to be here… let’s get comfortable.”

We are too often tempted to keep the experience of God’s awesome love to ourselves. We want to enjoy the company of the saints instead of going back down the mountain to continue the work of God. God knows this is a temptation of our hearts, and so I want to invite us now to confess this temptation and to pray for forgiveness together…

God of glory and light, forgive us when we are complacent and comfortable
with keeping the riches of your love to ourselves.
Keep calling us down from our mountains of privilege.
Keep expecting more of us as your disciples.
Keep reminding us to listen to your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

God’s perfect love surrounds us. And it calls us to stretch and to grow and to always look to the concerns of others. The needs of our world are too numerous to name. Shelter, food, clean air and water… Our gifts touch these needs, but the biggest gift we can give is to love the world so much that we give of ourselves.
Nothing will transform need more than sacrificial love. So as you place money in the offering (plate, basket, etc.) today, don’t let your giving be done. Start planning to go deeper. May God now bless our hopes and dreams.

AGAPE

The highest of all the loves is Agape love. It is the kind of love that within the church we talk the most about and find the hardest to practice. It is a completely self-less love, always directed towards others. It is a love that has no pre-requisites, no conditions; agape love doesn’t depend upon any lovable qualities at all. Simply by being, you may receive this kind of love.

As Christians, we are called upon by God to exhibit this kind of love in our daily lives. Agape love is often referred to as charity – a complete giving of oneself without any expectation of reward or acknowledgement – a complete giving of oneself that reflects the love of God towards us. This is the way that God loves.

One of the most important aspects of our tradition, particularly the Wesleyan tradition, is that there is nothing you or I can do to deserve the love of God. We do not possess any quality that deems us worthy of being “beloved” by God. Whether we say this is a result of our fallen nature, or original sin, or simply because we are mortal and God is divine, we do not deserve the love of God. And yet, the scriptures continually remind us, that God loves us anyway. God speaks us into being and sustains us through her spirit. God provides for our every need, fully knowing we can never repay that kind of love. And God does so, not by standing above us, but by walking beside us in Jesus Christ.

This love, agape love, is so great that I often felt in my life like the others just didn’t matter. Why should I care about storge, philia and eros if I can experience and share agape love?! But C.S. Lewis reminds us that we do not need to throw away silver to make room for gold. Yes, agape love is the highest, and it is the truest love in that it comes from God. We simply need to acknowledge that it is superior, and allow it to be a part of our other expressions of love.

As the scriptures that Jack just shared remind us – we are called to live out that same kind of love toward others. We are called to allow God’s agape love to transform our relationships with friends, with family, and with our beloved. We only find the strength to forgive family members when we can love them unconditionally. Friendships based on our common goals wither up without humility and a genuine desire to care for the other. And the relationships we have with our partners need the charity and grace of God in order to love unconditionally and in truth. We are called to love others not because of something good in them, but because God first loved us.

Benediction: While Valentine’s Day is known as a time for lovers, today, we come together as people who love and desire a relationship with God, to celebrate all of the loves in our life. Let us acknowledge those people who have nurtured us, walked beside us, share common passions, and those who have known us most intimately. As we journey down the mountain, we will struggle to embody Godly love, agape love, with all of these people. It is not an easy task– we continually need to be infused with God’s grace and spirit….. God will make our love holy, if only we ask.

disconTENTment

Posted on January 31, 2010Leave a comment

In our gospel reading this morning, we come across some very angry folks in Jesus hometown of Nazareth.

These are ordinary, run of the mill folks. They aren’t Pharisees who have a beef with Jesus. They aren’t disciples – those people who chose to follow Jesus and who should understand. No, these are small town people – a lot like you and me – who are just trying to get by.

Last week in our gospel reading, we remember that Jesus came back to his hometown after being away for a while. He walked in through the doors of the church and everyone was so happy to have him back again. I can imagine lots of handshakes and hugs going around as Jesus was passed from one person to the next. I can even imagine an older lady or two wanting to pinch his cheeks.

Jesus grew up among these folks. They knew him his whole life. And here he returns and they are just waiting for the hometown boy to make good. They are waiting for him to show off all of the stuff that he has learned out there in the big wide world.

So when the time comes for the reading of scripture, the scroll was handed to Jesus. And he found the place in Isaiah where it says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Now, Jewish custom in church was not to have one person give a sermon, but the leaders of the church would have the opportunity to comment on the reading and to bring up insights. In many ways, that’s what we do in our bible studies – especially the roundtable pulpit. Every voice is heard and respected.

Well, Jesus finished his reading and he too had a comment to make about this passage from Isaiah. All he said was, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In Mark’s gospel – just giving that little speech sets the crowds off in a tizzy – they can’t believe his arrogance, they want to know who he thinks he is to claim such things. After all, he is the kid they grew up with, that little snot-nosed bugger from down the street.

In Luke’s version of the story – that is not what the people are upset by. In fact, they are pretty amazed at first. Oh my, could this really be Joseph’s son? Where did he learn so much?

No, what get’s the people mad and upset and full enough of rage that they want to throw him off of a cliff is that Jesus picks a fight with them.

After he’s been gushed upon and praised, Jesus starts to get a little concerned that perhaps the people need to have a little reality check.

“This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing – but unfortunately, I’m not talking about for you. “

In Luke’s gospel – Jesus has been sent to be a light to the Gentiles. His mission is to bring about the kingdom of God, but he starts not with his own people from his hometown, not with the Jewish people, but with strangers and foreigners…

Maybe to think of a modern parable for this story, it would be as if someone that grew up here in Marengo, someone loved and respected, went off to college and graduate school. And then the came back into town with fanfare and that young woman told everyone – I’m going to lift this community out of poverty and rehabilitate all of the people in the prison, and I’m going to bring jobs and good things to this town, and I’m going to fill the pews of this church. And then, she choses to do so by working only with illegal immigrants in Williamsburg.

The kingdom was still going to come – they were just going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Would you be upset by that? Your hometown hero comes back to raise all of your hopes and then you think that they just dashed them to the ground.

The people were enraged – angry enough to kill – whipped up into a frenzy when they dragged Jesus to the brow of Nazareth Cliff… but it wasn’t his time, and he walked away from the fray without a scratch.

Jesus found himself coming home to a lot of discontented people. They were unhappy about how life had been going in their midst. They were hoping that maybe this one would turn out to be their savior… and he was, and he would be – but since he wasn’t exactly who they wanted him to be, their discontentment kicked in and they kicked him out.

There are people who live in a perpetual state of discontentment. In your bulletins, you may have noticed that that word is typed a little funny. That’s because I really want to focus this morning about the states we choose to live in. The attitudes we choose to clothe ourselves with.

Some people in this world are never happy. They can surround themselves with all of the good things in life and they will still find something to complain about. They can attend the best church in the city and they will still find something to be angry about and they will leave and try somewhere else. They can have the best husband or wife on the planet, and still they will nag and bicker. Do you know any of these people? Have they pitched their disconTENTment near you?

For the past few weeks, we have been exploring in Sunday school and our special Thursday night study the roots of this discontentment. Yes, we are talking on the surface about finances and money – but underneath all of that are things like greed, and pride, envy and sloth.

Underneath all of our financial turmoil is the simple fact that sin is present in the world.

While there are many ways that we can talk about sin – I think one of the best images for sin is turning our back to God. We turn our back to the good things that God offers us and instead seek our welfare, seek our happiness in things and money or food or alcohol or power or might.

In doing so, we are setting up the poles and laying out the stakes of discontentment. We may be erecting a fine and beautiful tent – it may be expensive and it might keep us warm… but it will never make us content. It will never make us happy.

There is only one thing that can bring us joy and happiness in this life. And we find a glimpse of it in 1 Corinthians.

Paul is writing to a group of Christians who have it all. They have people who are ready and willing to work – they have resources and money and gifts and talents. But they fight amongst themselves constantly. They are always trying to prove who is better, who is the most fit for leadership, they are always arguing about what color the carpet should be in the sanctuary and about who gets to hand out the offering plates and who should count the money.

Okay – well maybe those are a few 21st century things to fight about – but you get the picture. They may be faithful Christians, but they are still living in their old discontentments.

This would most assuredly be a church that would try to kick Jesus out of town if he ever really stopped by. He would probably have something truthful and challenging to say to them – just like he did to the people of his hometown – and they probably would have nothing to do with it.

Our Apostle Paul hears about the mess that they have made of their church and so he writes to them. (note: writing a letter is a whole lot safer than showing up in person sometimes!). He writes a letter to them and wants to encourage them to be their best selves. He tells them that they are the body of Christ and that each of them has an important role to play in the church. He tells them that each of them is gifted and that they should pay attention to and rely upon the gifts of others. He tells them they need to give and accept help and to treat all members with respect.

And then he launches into a beautiful part of his letter that is very familiar to us.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing

.
All of this stuff that you think is so important – Paul writes – all of this stuff that you are arguing about, it means absolutely diddly squat if there isn’t love in the midst of your community. You could have the most money or be the most talented or live in the most beautiful house, or even have the most elegant prayers and the most book knowledge…. But all of it is for nothing if there is not love in your life.

Paul’s not just talking about the romantic love between two people. He’s talking about deep, sustaining love. He’s talking about the love that knits people and communities together. He’s talking about the love that only comes from God.

What if, instead of living in discontentment – we learned how to live content in God’s love?

How would our lives be different?

How would the response of Nazareth have been different if instead of being jealous and full of rage when Jesus went to minister among other people they had love in their hearts for the broken and hurting people of Capernum?

How would the church in Corinth be different if the people stopped fighting with one another and instead worked together to bring God’s love to the people of their city and the world?

How would your life be different, if you stopped working so that you could get things and be happy, and instead, in all things worked with God’s love at the forefront of your mind?

3 ways to be content from the book….
– “it could be worse”
– Count your blessings and give thanks
– Know where your true joy lies – know that only in the ground of God’s love are we sustained – only when we pitch our tent there will we find abiding peace.

Story of a man who was angry with his wife and so he stormed out of the house and grumbled to God. Just like that definition of sin earlier, he turned his back on his wife and the love that was there and he was discontented. But something happened. There was a change in his heart as God worked on him there. He turned around back towards his house – just like he was turning back to God. And he was reminded of all the wonderful things about his wife and began thanking God for them.

In our lives – too often we turn our backs on God and the good things that God blesses us with. We want things our way and we deny the contentment at our fingertips.

But we also have a chance to turn around. Did you know that the literal definition for repentence – the greek word – is metanoia. It means to turn around – to do a 180, to turn from living with our backs to God and instead turn and face him with our faces. To seek him as the source of all our joy and happiness. To live our lives in his love.

Today – that is our blessing. That God’s grace turns us around and we have a chance to face God once more. To lay aside all that has pulled us kicking and screaming into our discontented lives and to rest in the joy of God’s abiding peace.

What tent will you live in?

the Christian journey

Posted on January 17, 2010Leave a comment

How do you understand the following traditional evangelical doctrines: a) repentance; b) justification; c) regeneration; d) sanctification? What are the marks of the Christian life?

Whenever I think of the Christian life, a quote I heard Anne Lamott give (whether or not it actually originated with her) comes to mind: God loves you just the way you are… and loves you too much to let you stay there. The Christian faith journey is just that – a journey, a process of discovering our true selves as created by God. In many ways, these four doctrines are lacking because they don’t acknowledge one that must precede them – God’s prevenient grace that allows us to see our need for repentance. The wonder of God is that the instant we recognize our sinful state is the same moment justifying grace is extended to us; in acknowledging our sin we are given grace by which we can be transformed. This begins a lifelong process of growth and transformation and practice and mistakes and setbacks and return to God for forgiveness and renewal and going on to perfection that makes the Christian life.

We can see evidence of that growth through the three very basic and simple virtues – faith, hope, and love. Working on these papers, a quote was shared with me from Teresa Fry Brown that claims, “Hope hearing the song of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it.” I would add that love is inviting others to take your hand and join in. We were created for relationship with God and with the rest of creation. Unless we are willing to take a leap of faith and actively participate in the transformative love of God, unless we are willing to have hope in the promise that all of creation will be renewed, we are denying the precious gift we have been given and continue to be in need of God’s grace.

Photo by: Stephen Eastop

love list

Posted on September 26, 20093 Comments

Kristin T. over on Halfway to Normal has been talking a lot about love lists lately.

a list that you make over time detailing the things you love most in life—the things that make you feel most content in the world, and most like you.

She goes on to say that while this is very personal sort of thing, that there could be accountability built around sharing our lists with one another. So she lists four “steps”:

start making your love list! I love the part about how we shouldn’t just sit down and brainstorm, but we really should pay attention to whenever we feel complete and good and whole after we have done something – and THEN add it to the list.
Ask why that thing is on the list… what is behind it?
Share on twitter #lovelist
share progress on Halfway to Normal on Friday’s.

I’m going to do this!!! Mostly because I really need something to help me focus my life right now. Some days I feel like I’m just floating waiting for the next thing to come. Some days I feel like I’ve wasted so much time that I can’t enjoy the things I really care about. I feel like I’m making so many poor decisions (not major decisions – but little ones like how I spend the first 15 minutes when I get home) because I don’t have any criteria in place. I haven’t thought enough about my day to really consider what is the most important and what brings me the most joy.

This also makes me think about the fact that I haven’t yet done the Time Management audit my friend Jessica Miller Kelley suggests we all do. It helps us figure out our true priorities in our day so that we can figure out if we need things to change.

For me, this isn’t just some creative way to schedule. It really is a spiritual exercise. If the Holy Spirit is the agent of life and joy in our lives – than am I ignoring the Spirit on a day to day basis? How can I pay more attention to the gentle nudges? How can I better align my will with God’s will? Where do I need to adjust some things in my life and possibly even let go of somet hings, so that I can more fully experience the gifts and the blessings God has surrounded me with?

In three weeks, I’ll be joining other young adult clergy at a retreat and one of our “sessions” will be on time and scheduling. But I think in many ways this whole idea of priorities and what we love needs to be a part of that conversation. I can’t guarantee I’ll have a handle on anything by then, but if I make a start, maybe I’ll have something to offer to the conversation.

Holy Spit Balls

Posted on September 6, 2009Leave a comment

Thursday night we had a wonderful and amazing event at our church. Over 25 people gathered together for fellowship, food, and fun. We had people of all ages – babies crawling around, preschoolers squealing for joy, teenagers running up and down stairs, parents and grandparents and friends.

As I sat there eating with everyone, I got to thinking about something. It felt just like a family reunion. It felt just like all of us gathered there were a big old happy family. Babies got passed from person to person. Teenagers pitched in and helped clean up. Adults took turns wiping the faces of little ones.

Both of my parents come from bigger families, and so these types of gatherings are something that I am very familiar with. Especially all of that face wiping! When I was little, I remember my mom, or my grandmas, or an aunt here or there spitting into a napkin to wipe a face clean. How many of you have had that done to you? How many of you have done it to others?

You know, spit is an intensely personal thing, and we don’t normally think of it as that clean – but I myself have spit on a napkin to wipe the face of my neice and nephew. I don’t know where the impulse to do so comes from – or why we do it, but it works! Spit can clean a face, a kiss can heal an ouchy. Hands can wipe away tears from faces and the pain that goes along with them.

But it’s only amongst family that we do those sorts of things. It’s only among the people we really and truly care about that we are willing to swap these sorts of bodily fluids. It’s only for our brothers and sisters that we are willing to get down and dirty and personal.

In the book, “Touch” Rudy Rasmas recounts to story of an orthopedic surgeon who for years performed surgery on all kinds of patients. As he tells the story he says, “Some of them, to be blunt, stank. When these people came to my office before and after surgery, I’d treat their medical problem, but I got in and out of the examining room as quickly as possible, and except for the medical examination, I avoided touching them. About a year ago, I was reading the Gospels about Jesus touching lepers, lame people, blind people, and all kinds of sick people. My heart was shattered. Those people He touched were the same kinds of people who come into my office every day.” (page 51-52)

This surgeon saw the people around him just as patients. They were clients that were to be dealt with as quickly as possible. In his eyes, it was easier not to see them as people who needed a healing touch, harder still to see them as brothers and sisters that he would go the extra mile for. Until he was reminded of how Christ treated those who were sick.

We have one of those healing stories in our gospel reading for today. A man is brought to Jesus who is deaf and who because of his deafness has problems speaking. In these times, any physical or mental deformity was seen as the direct result of the person or their parents sin – it was a punishment from God for their disobedience. And when people understand disabilities that way – it makes it a whole lot harder for that person to be fully accepted into a community. It becomes harder for others to see them as a human being. It is harder for that person of find love and care.

But Jesus takes one look at this deaf man and leads him off to one side. And Jesus gets up close and personal. I want you to really picture this for a second. He sticks his fingers into the man’s ears. He spits into his mouth! And he cries out, “Be Opened!” And the man can hear! He is healed! All because Jesus was willing to get close enough to him to spit in his face.

That’s the thing about Jesus. He doesn’t treat anyone differently because of who they are. He doesn’t shy away from people who look strange, or who talk funny, or who might smell bad or were born in the wrong family. He takes them by the hand, and he treats them like a brother or a sister. He isn’t afraid to touch them. He isn’t afraid to love them.

Philip Yancy said that, “Jesus moved the emphasis from God’s holiness (which is exclusive) to God’s mercy (which is inclusive). Instead of the message “no undesireables allowed,” he proclaimed, “in God’s kingdom there are no undesirables.” None of us are unworthy. None of us should be shut out.

That is a very hard message to follow. As we have already heard in our passage from James this morning, it is something that early Christians struggled with. They showed favoritism between the rich and the poor in their congregations. And they probably did amongst other people as well. They knew they were supposed to love everyone, but like we talked about last week, they were hearers of the word and not doers. Like the orthopedic surgeon, they would rather love from a distance than get up close and personal with someone. It was better for the poor man to sit at their feet, or to stand in the corner, than to take the place in the pew next to them.

Now, I know that this is a fairly welcoming congregation. I have seen us really treat one another like a family. We are willing to help out, we are willing to pitch in where we are needed. But how do we respond when strangers come into our midst? Or perhaps a better question – how willing are you to go out into the world into the parts of town and neighborhoods and cities where the strangers are?

In that same book, Touch, Rasmus includes an exercise that I want to share with you this morning. I want you to take out the slip of paper that was handed out with the bulletins and really think seriously and prayerfully and honestly about how you would answer this question. I want you to either mentally note, or if you have a pencil or pen handy, go ahead and circle, the descriptions of the people that you wouldn’t feel comfortable touching and sitting next to on a Sunday morning…

…few minutes…

Now, there are a few people on this list that make me uncomfortable. There are definitely people on this list that I wouldn’t go out of my way to touch – much less spit into a napkin to wipe their faces clean. But simply knowing that Jesus would, makes me want to change – makes me want to be better. Makes me want to love them, because Christ first loved me.

Remember that orthopedic surgeon? He heard about how Christ loved other people and he committed himself from that day on to giving big, long hugs to every person – especially the smelly ones – that come to see him.

The church that Rudy Rasmus helped to revitalize in Houston is probably the opposite of the church we hear about in James. It is a church where the homeless and drug addicts sit next to people wearing thousand-dollar suits and who are rising in the corporate world. And he writes that “unconditional love isn’t just good theology or church theory. It’s our practice, and we are very intentional about it. We teach our people to make it a point to reach out to every single person who walks in the door…”

He tells the story of a woman named “Neighbor” who carried everything she owned in a shopping cart. This woman came to church “every time the doors were open,” and she often did some covert panhandling at Sunday services. But after two years of this, she went up to the pastor and said, “Pastor Rudy, my name is Carolyn. Don’t call me ‘Neighbor’ anymore. You can call me Carolyn from not own.” Because the people in that church cared for her, reached out and touched her, her heart melted as she began to trust them. And she let them into her lives. She took off her mask of anonymity. “Carolyn would tell you that God has surrounded her with people who accept her just as she is. They didn’t try to fix her, they didn’t demand that she get cleaned up, and they didn’t expect her to respond quickly. They just kept loving her day after day, week after week, and they let her respond in her own good time.”

That is what church is all about. Loving people. Sharing the grace of God with them. Seeing them through the eyes of Christ. Bringing healing and wholeness to their lives by getting up close and personal. We can’t do that if we see one another as strangers. We can only do it if we recognize that we are all children of God – brothers and sisters in Christ – and if we are willing to get a little dirty rubbing against one another- and if we are willing to spit in a napkin to help make someone clean.

Amen and Amen.